The word “ultra” in the handset usually indicates that it is the range-topper for the series. But it does not quite appear to be the case with the Nubia Z50 series phone. I wouldn’t say the newly announced Nubia Z50S Pro is the range-topper but I’d say it sits alongside the Ultra revealed in March.
Chip
The new Nubia Z50S Pro has different strengths. For starters, it is powered by the new Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 “leading edition” which is essentially the boosted version of the SoC that is also found on the newly revealed Redmagic 8S Pro gaming smartphone.
This chip reportedly offers a higher max CPU clock speed of up to 3.36 GHz and a higher GPU of 719 MHz, as opposed to 3.2 GHz and 680 MHz on the original SD8 G1. The performance is further bolstered by the ZTE performance engine.
Imaging
The other key highlight would be, you guessed it, imaging in which the new Nubia Z50S Pro has a triple camera setup.
Leading the cameras is a 35 mm equivalent focal length camera with an effective aperture diameter of up to 5.21 mm, allowing for up to 56% more light. This camera has a 1/1.49 inch 50 MP sensor with f/1.59 aperture and is paired with a 1G+6P pro-grade lens and benefits from OIS.
There is another main camera. A 50 MP super wide-angle/macro main camera with 13 mm equivalent focal length and 125° super wide-angle ultra low-distortion lens. It further touts f/2.0 aperture and autofocus and is capable of macro imaging as close as 2.5 cm (0.98 inches).
Finally, there is an 8 MP 80 mm equivalent telephoto camera with 6x optical zoom, f/2.4 aperture, autofocus, and OIS. The main camera is a videography enthusiast’s wet dream that supports RAW night videoing, 4K macro videoing, and 4K time-lapse.
Over the front, it has a 16 MP selfie camera. So, yeah, no under-display camera for this device. Emphasizing its imaging prowess is a phone design that mimics the look of a classic camera that has a duo finish design featuring a calf leather-style glass section paired with a matte glass finish section, and a circular camera module, covered entirely by glass.
Slider
The new Nubia Z50S Pro also stood out with a physical slider that can be customized to quickly access the camera, put the phone to silence, turn on the flashlight function, open the audio recording app, or go into gaming space.
Display
The next stand-out feature would be the 1.5K so-called Super “Retina Eye Protection” display with 720 Hz touch sampling and 1,000 Hz instant sampling rate.
It is a 6.78” 2,800 x 1,260 resolution straight display, packing 425 ppi. It boasts 100% PCI-P3, 1 billion colors with 10-bit color depth, 1,200 nits brightness, 8,00,000:1 contrast ratio, and 2160 Hz high-frequency PWM dimming, and it is UL Platinum Low Blue Light Hardware Solution certified.
Design
Complimenting the straight display is an iPhone-ish straight-edge design which we thought looked pretty cool. However, handling may be another story, though.
Cooling
The new Z50S Pro also touts superior cooling, lent to it by a 4,233 mm2 ultra large VC – a bump of 38% in cooling surface area – bolstered by 9 high-precision NTC sensors and computational cooling algorithm.
Others
Other notables include IR, NFC, 5G, dual SIM (nano), Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth 5.3, under-display optical fingerprint sensor, X linear motor, Stereo dual sound, DTS-X, Snapdragon Sound, and 5,100 mAh battery, supports 80 W wired charging, featuring the smartphone maker’s “power saving technology”.
The device runs on Android 13 featuring MyOS 13 UI.
The new Nubia Z50S Pro Smartphone is offered in black and khaki colorways, and 12 GB + 256 GB, 12 GB + 1 TB, and 16 GB + 1 TB configurations, with a super attractive starting price of 3,699 yuan (around 515 USB) in China. It is not known if it will be available internationally and if so, for how much.
Images: Nubia [CH].
